The Tribunal’s interrogation hall lay beneath the palace, a cold stone chamber where the air moved heavy with incense. Amber chains pulsed along the walls like arteries and runic torches cast an amber glow on the marble. Garris was brought in shackled, eyes adrift — a rat placed at the center of a board that was beginning to tremble.
Mira conducted the clarification ritual: a circle of saline smoke that shielded mind and body against external manipulation. The HUD described the procedure:
INTERROGATION_RITUAL: CLARIFY_LOOP (MIRA) -> PROTECTIVE_SHEATH_ACTIVE
DURATION: 30min | EFFECT: REDUCE_FORGED_MEMORIES (MAJOR)
SUPPORT: MEDICAL (MIRA/LIO)
Garris resisted at first. When questions got direct — “Who paid? Who signed?” — he trembled. Not from guilt but because truth burned where it hid. Accounting terms, seals, transfers — always the same partial hologram, the whispering name: Mael.
Mira demanded precision: she presented parchments and seals Garris recognized. The man gave way like liquid poured out — first slow confession, then a list: coffers in Halvor, deposits run through an escrow with partial seal and encrypted instructions naming “Counselor Mael” as final recipient. There was, however, a curious appendix — a recovery contract stamped with a black seal and dirty words: Priority Service — Recovery of Live Asset — Verify: Fists. Garris hardly breathed; he said he only executed written orders.
The Tribunal reacted with noise. Councillors muttered consequences. Renna demanded Mael’s suspension pending inquiry; others feared shock and called for caution. Mael was the sort of man who presided with smiles and varnished mouths — touching him was touching the throne. What followed was a painful political knot.
Then — when tension peaked — an external blow tore the hall: someone tried to silence the witness. A group of hooded assassins burst in through a side passage, triggering the Tribunal’s defenders. The assassination attempt was swift and engineered: poisoned blades; erasure-runes embedded in tips. The goal was clear: kill Garris before he could speak in corridors.
Kaito was present. He would not let a blade fall on the man. The ensuing fight was among the most physical since Zack’s capture — small, brutal, carrying the weight of a whole city on its shoulders. I'll describe it as a cinematic sequence.
Environment: cold marble floor, long tapestries that muted sound, low pillars. The echo of boots reverberated and each step chimed.
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An assassin charged with a short curved blade aiming a decisive cut. Kaito executed Chain of Bones — Initial Lock: a low cut to trap the leg, a lateral thrust to wrench the joint, and a rotation that used the attacker’s weight against himself. The assassin fell, but a second spear detonated a rune in the walls and tiny shards of runic glass sprayed — sparks that scraped marble and flayed skin.
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Lyra entered as interruption: shield clashed with shield, the dry sound of metal like a hammer. A shield strike from her did more than hurt — it shoved an auxiliary pillar that held part of the mezzanine; the vibration made the slab groan and little stones fell, dusting the floor. The impact was felt through the feet — the reader should feel the shove, the backward force.
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Kaito performed Spiral Sever on a second assassin — a spin with blade that scraped the man’s chest and hurled him against a heavy carpet; the mass of the rug toppled torches, and smoke rose. The technique wasn’t neat — it was ragged, an object smashing tendons, a sound like a knot being cut.
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A third attacker tossed a binding device — a net with runes woven in. Nara, from her bow, loosed an arrow that embedded in the net’s junction: the tip erupted in runic flame and severed the weave. A snap of heat seared Nara’s hands; the smell of singed hair passed.
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One assailant tried to poison Garris with a blade holding a small vial. Kaito threw himself between the blades — the impact dragged his shoulder and made a sound of flesh meeting metal. Pain burst: the blade grazed his biceps muscle. He tasted hot blood as he breathed. Still, he rolled and used the weight of his wounded shoulder to slam the attacker into a table — shattering the base and sending a ceramic vase fracturing into the enemy’s head.
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When the smoke fell, four attackers lay on the floor; three neutralized and one fled along a side walkway. Garris was alive, breathing ragged and with his throat intact. But Kaito limped; his shoulder throbbed. The HUD updated with cold edge:
COMBAT_RESULT: TRIBUNAL_DEFENSE -> SUCCESS (WITNESS SAVED)
KAITO: HP 48% | LEFT_ARM_INJURY (MODERATE) | STAMINA 30%
SOCIAL: GARRIS_CONFESSION_VALIDITY +HIGH | POLITICAL_RISK = ESCALATED
After the fight, Garris’s evidence was sealed and taken by the Tribunal. The political outcry began: some demanded Mael’s ouster; others warned that exposing him could topple the city. In the shadows the news spread: Baran had intervened, the Fists seal flared in the recovered memories. Someone had truly paid the man.
Nara wiped blood from the corner of Kaito’s mouth with the edge of a scarf. “You risked it,” she said. “They cut your hand to hold truth.” He answered with a short breath: “Nothing is won without cutting something.” The Tribunal braced to open political fire, and Kaito already felt the chill sign of retaliation — not just from Velarn, but from whoever had contracted Baran.
Open Halls and Closed Traps
News about Mael spread like gunpowder through palace corridors. Emergency sessions, late-night signed letters, street cries in two versions: “Traitor Councillor!” and “Don’t fall for rumors!” Renna convened a council to pursue a middle path: expose the case in a controlled way while keeping stability.
The Tribunal, pressured, demanded irrefutable proof for a public accusation — Garris’s partial seal was not enough. Kaito knew this and proposed a parallel route: covert infiltration into Mael’s circle to capture final transfer records and prove payment. It would be a matter of spies, bribes, and patience — a path Kaito was not always patient for.
The HUD sketched options:
STRATEGIC_OPTIONS:
1) PUBLIC_TRIAL -> RISK: POLITICAL_COLLAPSE / VELARN_PROPAGANDA
2) COVERT_INVESTIGATION -> RISK: OPERATIVE_CAPTURE / TIME_DELAY
RECOMMEND: COUPLED_APPROACH (DECOY_TRIAL + COVERT_OPERATIONS)
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Renna approved the inscrutable plan: apply public pressure (a staged inquiry) while Kaito led a quiet team to plant bugging devices, bribe servants and gather hard proof from Mael’s private rooms. The operation demanded tact — the very thing Kaito didn’t always have.
Before the infiltration there was training. Kaito knew he couldn’t call on the Administrator; if Baran were rehired, his damage-transfer power would have to be mitigated, not faced head-on. So they organized:
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Mobile Antigen scales — Edran and Mira increased production.
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Anti-mark tactics — Nara devised Stitch-Point: arrows tipped with resin that left a micro-rune detector on skin where Baran would mark; not a cure but an alarm.
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Network brigades — Kaito drilled Net Hands to install micro-Ambers under fire, using new sequences. He personally led a resistance drill at the docks: installing Amber on moving carts, with wind and spray interfering.
One intense preparation scene was a morning duel between Kaito and Lyra, not to defeat but to refine technique. It was a long fight of sweat and steel — combat as teaching:
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Environment: Hammer of Iron warehouse; ropes, low beams, smoke and embers.
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Lyra opened with Route of Bones — Linked: precise strikes to dismantle base — Kaito answered with Spiral Sever modulated with a short leap to avoid losing space. Every time she broke a guard, Kaito shifted axis, using a beam for leverage.
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The weight of a blow: in one exchange Kaito took an inward punch through the vest — the narration described it as the chest cavity being compressed, air rasping out — and still countered with a strike that splintered a wooden rib of a training dummy — the reader should feel the vibration in his forearm.
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Technical finish: both stopped panting; Lyra smiled: “Your left hand’s slow.” He answered, trembling: “Your wrist opening is predictable.” They learned and adjusted.
HUD:
TRAINING_LOG: KAI/LYRA -> SKILL_SYNC +12% | NET_HAND_PROFICIENCY +8%
KAITO: STAMINA RECOVERY REQUIRED | SUGGEST_REST_BEFORE_COVERT
The day closed with Kaito and Nara reviewing routes in silence. They knew the infiltration would be dangerous — not blade-on-blade, but a dance of shadows and contracts.
Silk Sprout — Infiltration at Mael
Mael’s mansion occupied a whole block: clipped gardens, bronze fountain figures, marble lintels. The greatest prize wasn’t the vault but Mael’s offices, where contracts and authorizations bore his signature. The small team — Kaito (entry), Nara (cover), Lio (comms), and two Hammer operatives disguised as servants — moved like knots through that velvet theatre.
They slipped in at night, cutting shadow-trails. Lio had bribed a servant who allowed them through the service wing where stacked firewood and roast smells lined the corridor. The aim: intercept a messenger leaving with a package at midnight. The HUD set the window:
SIDE_OP: INTERCEPT_MESSENGER_AT_MAEL -> HIGHEST_VALUE_EVIDENCE
TIME_WINDOW: 00:00 - 00:10 | RISK: ELITE_GUARDS / RUNE_CAMOUFLAGE
Central scene: the night garden, wet stone paths, water basins reflecting lamps. The messenger came — a lithe man in a short cloak carrying a tied sack. Two elite guards stood away, with thin spears and rune-braclets. They weren’t brutes — they moved with military economy.
When Kaito and Nara moved to intercept, the guards reacted — not with immediate rage but by protocol: one guard tapped his gauntlet and the entire garden shivered — small flowering devices exhaled an invisible dust: sensory camouflage meant to confuse tracking. The air thickened; the HUD blinked:
ALERT: RUNE_AMBIENT (CAMOUFLAGE) -> SENSORY_DISRUPTION +MOD | RECOMMEND: MICRO-AMBERS
There was no time for heavy micro-Ambers; Kaito trusted stealth and skill, but a clash became inevitable.
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The guard commander — a man named Sorkan, known for iron fists and a short blade — advanced. He attacked with a column-straight strike aimed at the spine. Kaito met it with Chain of Bones anti-column variant: he rotated the torso, absorbed with his forearm (the shock echoed in the collarbone) and replied with a series of short strikes that didn’t cut but hit like hammers, maximizing concussive effect. Sorkan staggered and the nearby statue’s base cracked; water from the basin began to leak, forming a puddle.
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The guards used the garden: fountains as screens, paths as traps. One tried to shove Kaito into the puddle where runes on the garden floor were pressure-tuned to release bolts. Kaito heard a click and in a fraction of a second leapt, rolled and landed an Edge-Fist into the guard’s knee — the impact resonated to the reader’s gut: the joint gave with a dry sound. The guard fell and the mechanism was stopped.
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While Kaito held Sorkan, the messenger slipped. Nara lined up, calculated an angle off a bronze basin and fired Stitch-Point — the arrow struck the messenger’s shoulder, nonlethal, embedding a tiny resin detector. The HUD pinged: MARK_DETECT: TRUE — DEVICE_EMITTER ON PACK.
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The messenger fell; Lio ran and ripped the sack. Inside were sealed documents and a small tablet logging transfers — movements to a palace account and instructions explicitly referencing “Payment to Executor — Condition: Secrecy — Ref: Fists.” Among the notes, an anonymous account number linked to the escrow seal. The proof was cutting: it showed contract, if not the payer’s face. Still, it was enough to tie Mael to transfers.
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As they slipped away, the alarm cried out: someone had signaled the mansion. Before they could vanish, shadows moved — palace riders were mobilized by another route. Danger changed direction: there were those prepared to defend Mael. Kaito ordered a tactical withdrawal: back through garden channels and vanish under smoke screens. The escape was close, slipping on wet marble, the ring of spears tasting around them.
HUD ended the op:
OP_RESULT: INTERCEPT_MESSENGER -> SUCCESS (DOCS_RECOVERED)
INTEL: TRANSFERS -> TAGGED: 'ESCROW_ACCOUNT / FISTS_PAYMENT'
STRATEGIC: PROOF_STRONG -> REQUIRE: PUBLIC_CHALLENGE_TO_MAEL (TRIBUNAL)
RISK: VELARN_PROPAGANDA_SURGE + HIGH | POSSIBILITY: BARAN_REHIRE = HIGH
KAITO_STATE: HP 41% | STAMINA 26% | CORE_FRAGMENTATION = CRITICAL (MONITOR)
When the team met on the quay, the first news arrived: Mael called a special council session and declared the investigation an attempted coup; Velarn sent public messages attacking the Tribunal’s competence, implying the city was in chaos. The political play was clear — discredit the Station while buying time.
Kaito held the papers and felt the cold of the parchment — then a rumor chilled his blood: watchers reported a silhouette on the southern cliffs — black gloves flashing for a second when touching the air. Someone claimed to have seen a man who could be Baran. The HUD didn’t confirm; it was rumor, but rumor was enough to move pieces.
Nara touched his arm and whispered: “If the contract still breathes, he’ll come.” Kaito nodded, eyes on the sea: “If he comes, we won’t have the Admin. We’ll have steel, rituals and what’s left of us.” The next move would be diplomatic and military: expose Mael publicly, brace for Velarn’s reaction, and in parallel prepare defenses against Baran’s rehiring — but everyone knew whoever paid the Black Fists would not be easily torn from power.
The chapter closes with the HUD drawing a new, cold, unavoidable order:
MAIN_QUEST_UPDATE: MAEL_IMPLICATED (DOCUMENTS_RECOVERED) -> NEXT: PUBLIC_CHALLENGE + PROTECT_TRIBUNAL
CONCURRENT: PREPARE_DEFENSES_AGAINST_BARAN_REHIRE -> SCALE_ANTIGEN + DEPLOY_NET_HAND_DETONATIONS
KAITO_PERSONAL: CORE_FRAGMENTATION = CRITICAL | RECOMMEND: LEVERAGE_ALLIES / POLITICAL_NEXUS HIT
The city readied for a clash that would not be only of steel but of contracts, of transferred pain, and of who would hire the world’s most feared man. Kaito looked at Nara — and felt that, even without whole memories, one line tied him: the promise to protect faces who had trusted him. That was enough to keep going.